Tag: Padma Vyuha

  • Abhimanyu Would Have Killed Krishna

    Abhimanyu Would Have Killed Krishna

    In my earlier Post on Chakra Vyuha, Formation and Piplu Fort I mentioned that Krishna did not teach Abhimanyu,His Nephew, the art of breaking out of the Chakra/Padma Vyuha, but taught him how to enter it, when Abhimanyu was in his mother Shubadras’ womb.

    And I mentioned that krishna would not left it at that for such a silly reason as having been called by some body while he was teaching his nephew and Krishna had his reason.

    The reason is that has Krishna taught Abhimanyu the art of leaving Chakra Vyuha, he would have survived and a later date would have killed Krishna Himself!

    According to Krishna, Abhimanyu was an incarnation of a very powerful demon named (Kalayvan) who was capable of killing him at a later point. Abhimanyu’s only weakness is his partial knowledge about Chakravyuha. Hence, according to Krishna the Chakravyuha was indeed launched to kill Abhimanyu as this is the only way by which Abhimanyu can attain Moksha. Hence, Krishna never imparts the knowledge of “how to come out of Chakravyuha?” to Abhimanyu inspite of being his guru in Dwaraka. Thus, on the 13th day Lord Krishna does not give any clue to Arjun that the Chakravyuha was launched by Dronacharya inspite of foreseeing it.

    “According to one South Indian tradition, it is a curse from Durvasa that makes Abhimanyu a Rakshasa in his current birth. In a former life he was a gatekeeper at Rama’s palace, and Durvasa cursed him to be born as a Rakshasa in his future life because he refused entry to the sage into Rama’s court. However, the reason for Krishna desiring Abhimanyu’s death was not exactly because he was a Rakshasa, but because Abhimanyu is capable of killing the entire Kaurava clan all alone, and that would make it impossible for the Pandava brothers, who had taken vows of killing the individual Kauravas’ . ( http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/09-12/features2590.htm)

    ncarnated as Abhimanyu , he was in his previous birth known as Kalayavan, the King of Magadha, who was an asura or demon and with the help of other Kings such as Jarasandha and Shalva invaded Mathura with an army of thirty million Rakshasa soldiers against Krishna. He was undefeated and unmatched in battle due to the boon given to him by Lord Shiva that no Yadava could kill him in battle, but he was at the same time also merciless and cruel. Coming to know about the protection given by Lord Shiva to Kalayavana, Sri Krishna, somewhat dejected, shifted to Dwarka from Mathura.

    Kalayavan knew that Krishna is the only person who could defeat him in battle and by accepting this challenge he set out to invade Krishna’s kingdom. When the two armies faced each other in battle, Krishna dismounted from his chariot and began to walk away, followed by Kalayavan. After a long time Krishna, followed by Kalayavan entered a dark cave. This cave at the time was inhabited by the Rishi Muchukunda who had been meditating there for generations.

    King Muchukunda, a king of the Solar dynasty and son of Mandhata had on the request of Lord Indra gone to Devaloka [ Heavens] along with his forces and defeated the Asuras (demons). Indra wanted to bless him with an award for the service, which he had rendered. Muchukunda, feeling very tired, wanted to be shown a place, where he could have sound sleep and meditate, because he had not slept for a long time. Indra led him to a cave on earth and told him that anyone who disturbed him in sleep, would be reduced to ashes by his very look.

    http://www.trinetra.org.uk/#/hindu-history-abhimanyu/4539468650)

    Another tale of Abhimanyu’s origin says, Abhimanyu is the reincarnation of Varchas, the son of the Moon god. When the Moon god was asked to let his son incarnate himself on earth by the other devas, he made a pact that his son will only remain on earth for 16 years as he could not bear to be separated from him. Abhimanyu was 16 years old when he died in the war. Hence, on the 13th day Krishna does not intervene while the Chakravyuha was formed by Dronacharya despite knowing that without adequate knowledge, Abhimanyu would get killed in the battle.

    Arjun was never the martial arts instructor for Abhimanyu, rather Krishna was. Now Krishna being the Lord Narayan himself, Arjun must have expected Abhimanyu to be properly trained, and must not have checked about his training at all.

    Furthermore, Lord Krishna knew that Abhimanyu was so powerful a warrior, that he could alone defeat and kill all the Kauravas, which would not let the Pandava vows to be fulfilled of killing the Kauravas on their own, and Krishna did not want Mahabharata’s hero to be anyone else other than Arjun (who was his devotee). Also, Krishna knew that with the knowledge of such treachery from Kauravas to kill his son, Arjun would be furious and would be killing all the Kauravas with less guilt in his conscience..

    Kalayavana.

    “Kalayavana, the King of Magadha and Salva attacked the city of Mathura, but when the city was encircled by their soldiers, the Lord refrained from killing them personally, just to show the power of His own men.

    Purport: After the death of Kamsa, when Mathura was encircled by the soldiers of Kalayavana, Jarasandha and Salva, the Lord seemingly fled from the city, and thus He is known as Ranchor, or one who fled from fighting. Actually, the fact was that the Lord wanted to kill them through the agency of His own men, devotees like Mucukunda and Bhima. Kalayavana and the King of Magadha were killed by Mucukunda and Bhima respectively, who acted as agents of the Lord. By such acts the Lord wanted to exhibit the prowess of His devotees, as if He were personally unable to fight but His devotees could kill them.”

    After the invasion, Krishna departed to build a city of Dwārkā amidst sea, transported all his people and left them there.

    Krishna lured Kalayavan into the cave of the mighty Muchukunda, who upon being disturbed from sleep by his kick, cast a fiery glance and reduced him to ashes.

    This legend appears to indicate an invasion from the Himalayas. According to the Vishnu Purana and Harivamsa, Kalayavan was the son of a Brahmin named Ganga, and a Yavana princess.

    Muchukunda was a Tamil King who established Saptha Vidanga Sthalas for Lord Shiva.

    Please read my post on this.

    Citation.

    http://aroundtheworldin80nights.blogspot.ae/2012/07/chakravyuha-deadliest-of-formations-and.html

    * Various accounts are available for this Legend.Readers may send in their refernces.

    Abhmanyu was taught By Krishna . Source(s):Mahabharata by Kamala Subramaniyam Drona Parva Chapter 7 published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai

  • Chakra Vyuha Formation Its Remains Piplu Fort

    Chakra Vyuha, also known as Padma Vyuha was a special Battle formation used in the Mahabharata War.

    Lord Krishna,Arjuna,Jayathratha, Pradhyumna( Krishna’s Son) knew how to crack the Vyuha.

    Chakra Vyuha Piplu Fort.Image,jpg
    Chakra Vyuha, Piplu Fort. People say that water would enter from one side, travel through mazes and come out of the other side.

    Abhimanyu knew how to enter but did not know how to come out as Lord Krishna, his Uncle, who was teaching Abhimanyu while he was in his mother’s womb, left on an errand afer teaching how to enter the Chakra Vyuha.

    Read my post on Battle formations in Mahabharata.

    Scroll down for Video

    Chakra Vyuha Formation was used thrice in the Kurukshetra war.

    Chakravyuha was  formed just before the Kurukshetra war by Bhishma to counter Arjun, who was defending the Kaurava invasion on the kingdom of Virat (insisted by Duryodhan and aimed at uncovering the anonymity of Pandavas, during their 1 year anonymous exile, following the previous 12 years exile.

    The second time Chakravyuha was formed to capture Yudhishthir during the 13th day of the war.

    Abhimanyu died at this instance.

    The third time, Chakravyuha was made was in the 14th day of the war, to protect Jayadratha from getting killed by Arjun (which according to Arjun’s vow will result into Arjun’s self-immolation, and will further result into an easy victory for Kauravas). Chakravyuha (Wheel or Disc formation), Sarpavyuha (Snake formation) and Soochivyuha (Needle formation) were made to protect Jayadratha. Consequently Arjun broke all the formations with his incredible skills and bravado (and some help from Lord Krishna as well), and by the end of the day killed Jayadratha, thereby completing his vow.

    Map showing Piplu Fort.Image.
    Map showing Piplu Fort.

    How Chakra Vyuha Was formed.

    The rotating Chakravyuha consisted of warriors of various calibres. The Other Pandavas or anyone in general could not breach it because of 2 primary reasons. Firstly, they usually attacked the stronger warriors in the ring and consequently were repelled. Secondly as soon as they started to get an upper hand on one particular warrior, the ring rotated and another Kaurava warrior confronted them.

    Abhimanyu overcame this strategy by attacking the warriors to the left and right of him, instead of the ones directly in front. As the layers of the ring rotated, the gap he had created to his left or right came in front of him and he penetrated the Chakravyuha accordingly. He repeated the same for all the further layers of the rings.

    Another version of the story says that Arjun mentioned a “right time to enter” the Chakravyuha, also the “right words to enter” as well. This seems to indicate that apparently there was some sort of key to solve the jigsaw puzzle, using which one can break the Chakravyuha. This may indicate the weak points of the Chakravyuha to attack probably. This further approves the fact that probably the rotating wheel formation must be having its inner labyrinthine maze and its corresponding layers rotating too, also possibly in different directions and in varying speed too. That complex nature of coordination would require a precise time to attack, during which the formation could be its most vulnerable with a possible alignment of an attack path through the various layers. The right time, and right word can thus signify the time to find such possible course of alignment within the Chakravyuha, and the exact usage of weapons (assuming various war cries were associated with various weapons) during the attack.

    There is a labyrinthine in Rajasthan resembling the Chara Vyuha formation.

    The Pandavas are reported to have formed this during their exile,Ajnatha Vasa, reamaing in cognito.

    This is underground.

    This was probably done to escape the notice of the Spies of Duyodhana.

    ‘Popularly known as the Piplu Fort, it is located 30-35 kilometers away from Hamirpur district headquarters. The motivation behind visitng this fort was not the fort but it was to see the replica of labyrinth [चक्रव्यूह] that was created by Kauravas in the Mahabharat. It is believed that when Paandav’s reached that region during their exile period, they cleared the whole region within one day and made it a plane area.’

    How To Reach.

    In order to reach Tonk district in Rajasthan, one can take a flight to Jaipur Airport. There is a good network of roads connecting the district with Delhi, Bundi, Ajmer, Kota, Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur. There are ample number of buses operated by the RSRTC. The nearest railway station is the one at Banasthali-Newai(35 km) and the Jaipur Station(96 km). Express trains run along this route on a regular basis thereby making it convenient for the tourists to reach this place.

    Citation/reference.

    http://aroundtheworldin80nights.blogspot.ae/2012/07/chakravyuha-deadliest-of-formations-and.html

  • Mother Sings Baby Claps In Womb Recall Mahabharata

    The Mahabharata Has an interesting anecdote.

    Lord Krishna, while His sister, Subhadra was advanced state of pregnancy,sat by her side and explained the intricate Battle formation called Padma Vyuha.

    On being asked he replied that He was teaching his nephew,Abhimanyu in the womb.

    Abhimanyu Entering the Padma Vyuha.image.jpg
    Abhimanyu Entering the Padma Vyuha. “Halebid2”. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halebid2.JPG#/media/File:Halebid2.JPG

    The child responded by saying ‘Hmmmmm)

    Scroll down for Video.

    He completed the part about entering the Formation and was about to continue with the process of emerging from it, he had to leave the place.

    Later in the Kurukshetra Battle, Abhimanyu entered the Padma Vyuha set by Drona, was unable to come out and was killed by Jayathratha, while Ajuna wnad the pther Pandavas were lured away in the battle filed elsewhere.

    Consider this with the advanced genetics and gynaecology known to ancient Indians.

    For those who doubt hat a Fetus would not respond, we now have Ultra Scan better see while scanning takes place.

    Now we have a real Life Video showing a Baby clapping its hands while its Mother sings a nursery Rhyme.

    In Hinduism it is stressed that those around pregnant women and they also must refrain from unhealthy words and behaviour as this would affect the child.

    It is recommended that one should recite the Sunadara Kanda of Ramayana, that part that describes Hanuman’s efforts to find Sita, to ensure that the child is born healthy and wise

    (Knowing Krishna’s ways, I suspect it was a deliberate ploy for None can ask Krishna do other than what he intends, as Balarama observes on one occasion).